Why Twitter Matters. Hint: It’s Not Because It’s Popular.

David Armano, VP of Experience Design with Critical Mass, wonders “Why is Twitter exploding?”, and suggests that it’s rapidly growing because it has created a “conversation ecosystem”.

Forrester Analyst Jeremiah Owyang says that “conversations have shifted to Twitter,” and calls it a next-generation chat room.

If Alexa’s traffic statistics are any indication, though, Twitter isn’t exploding, it’s stagnating. Here’s an Alexa graph of Twitter.com’s reach for the last six months…..

You can debate the accuracy of Alexa’s numbers, but there’s nothing there to suggest that Twitter’s reach is exploding. Twitter accounts number in the hundreds of thousands, 660,739 as of today, with a large portion of these accounts inactive.

It’s Not How Many People Are On Twitter That Matters, It’s Who Is On Twitter

To understand the importance of Twitter, you have to consider who is using it, not how many. A look at the most active Twitter users reveals that the service has captured the attention of many of the most prolific content creators on the Web.

Active Twitter users are also active in other new media, and as a result, have a disproportionate influence on the development of the Web. Active Twitter users are bloggers, podcasters, video podcasters and vloggers. Active Twitter users are the people creating new content on the Web, and they are the ones linking to new content and new ideas on the Web.

It’s rapidly becoming easier and easier to publish content to the Web. Twitter makes it trivial to post to the Web, and active Twitter users are the ones figuring out what this means.